Split, Croatia

Saturday we docked in a new country, Croatia, across the Adriatic Sea from Ravenna. We went to the city called Split, where a tour guide, Helena, met us. We began our day visiting a ruin of a Roman city, Solan, which was interesting. Then we went on to a very medieval town named Trogir. We enjoyed wandering the very narrow streets, and finding old churches and lots of views for picture-taking. All our guides have been very knowledgable and entertaining, but we particularly enjoyed the time we spent with Helena, our very well-spoken, attractive guide in Croatia.

Helena showed us Diocletian's Tomb in Split. Diocletian was an emporer of Rome in the 300 AD period. Rather than die in office, he decided to retire to the area near Solan, where he had spent his childhood. He built a "palace" that today is the entire center of the old city of Split. It consists primarily of high walls surrounding the original palace grounds and enormous cellars, which we toured. A small cathedral is built in one part of the grounds and the ancient Roman Temple of Zeus became the Christian's baptistry centuries ago.

Our ship features two fine dining restaurants in addition to the dining room and the cafeteria. We decided to enjoy dinner together on Saturday evening and reserved space for all 19 of us. We celebrated Pat's birthday that day and Judy & Al's first anniversary the next day. It was a wonderful dinner, which many of us finished with Grand Marnier souffles.